🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter : 6
Long eyelashes framing big eyes.
Beneath them, irises like a blue lake.
A slightly taller height than girls her age, and a posture straight as if drawn in a painting.
“Wow… she looks like an elf from a fairy tale…”
I stared at Rachel, momentarily forgetting my original purpose, completely enchanted.
Only belatedly did I come to my senses and greet her.
“Ah, hello, Your Highness the Princess. I’m Vivian, who came today to be your playmate—”
But Rachel walked past me before I could even finish my greeting and sat down at the center table in the greenhouse.
“…It’s cold. So cold.”
Is it my fate as the villainess that she must hate me, the heroine?
Rachel began reading the book she brought, as if I wasn’t even standing there.
Watching her, I swallowed a sigh.
“Can I… really become friends with Rachel…?”
Just as I was swallowed by that anxiety—
I suddenly noticed something strange.
“Huh? Come to think of it, my heart was hurting badly just a moment ago…”
The pain that had been tormenting me until just now had vanished as if it had never existed.
“Usually it would slowly fade, leaving a lingering ache…”
But this disappearance was instantaneous.
And Rachel, whom I had bumped into just moments ago.
Realizing the connection between the two, I covered my mouth with my hand.
“Does touching Rachel even slightly make the pain go away?”
Already?!
“Awesome!”
I almost ran up and hugged Rachel right away—but I held back.
Doing that would only make things worse. Rachel already disliked me; I might get kicked out entirely.
So I hurriedly returned to my seat before I could be disliked even more.
No matter what I did, Rachel didn’t even glance at me—but I still smiled as I watched her.
“I will definitely become Rachel’s best friend!”
Even if I couldn’t, I had to make it happen.
Because this wasn’t just anything—this was my life on the line.
As I gazed at Rachel with a satisfied smile, she finally lifted her eyes, sensing my stare.
Her blue eyes were clearly filled with annoyance.
But I didn’t care and suddenly blurted out:
“I like you, Your Highness.”
Rachel’s brows twitched slightly.
“I’ll make you happy from now on.”
And save my life too, while I’m at it.
Despite my passionate “confession,” Rachel only looked at me coldly and returned to her book.
And she never looked at me again.
Not until our first tea time ended, and the butler came to take her away.
Rachel stood up before I could even finish saying goodbye—and only then did she speak for the first time.
“Don’t come again.”
It was a cold first sentence—but I wasn’t the type to give up.
“Ten tries won’t bring down a tree? Then I’ll just try the eleventh time.”
As long as it keeps me alive!
A few days later—on the day of the scheduled tea time with Rachel.
I returned to the villa.
But ten minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes…
Time passed, yet Rachel never came to the greenhouse.
Suddenly, I remembered her icy voice from our last meeting instead of a goodbye:
“Don’t come again.”
No way…
“Did I… get stood up?”
Of course, the tea time had been arranged unilaterally by the Duke, not by Rachel herself—but still.
“Still!”
Just as I stood up to ask a maid when Rachel would arrive—
click.
The greenhouse door opened.
“Hello, Prin—”
I reflexively greeted, but stopped when I heard a giggling laugh.
The person standing there was not Rachel.
It was Sally.
“Hello, Princess~?”
Sally mocked my greeting, then quickly changed her expression and looked at me with contempt.
“You really are hopeless. No manners at all.”
I glared at this unwelcome guest.
Sally didn’t care and continued sneering.
“Why do you think the young lady hasn’t come here all this time?”
“What?”
“She doesn’t want to meet you. You should’ve just gone home already. Honestly, people with no sense are so annoying.”
“Did the Princess really say that? Or is there another reason?”
For a moment, Sally looked flustered—but quickly regained confidence.
“Yes. She said she doesn’t want to play with someone uneducated like you.”
I inwardly smirked.
“She probably thought I’d cry and leave like a normal kid…”
But unfortunately for her—
I wasn’t an innocent nine-year-old who would believe that.
“Really? Then can I ask the Princess myself?”
“What?”
“If what you said is true, I should go home. But what if it’s a lie?”
I stepped closer with an exaggerated troubled expression.
“Then I’d be a rude girl who disobeyed the Duke’s order to be the Princess’s companion and just went home.”
“I-it’s not a lie!”
“Then let’s confirm it, since you’re so confident.”
I pushed Sally’s shoulder aside and left the greenhouse.
“Hey! You—!”
I could hear her furious shouting behind me, but she didn’t immediately chase me.
‘If Rachel really didn’t come, then she probably doesn’t like me.’
Sally likely thought I would be humiliated and sent away by Rachel.
But—
“That’s not my goal.”
With a confident smile, I approached a passing maid, intending to ask where Rachel’s room was.
And just then, I ran into Rachel coming down the stairs.
She widened her eyes slightly at the unexpected encounter, then frowned.
“…Why are you here?”
Her tone was clearly annoyed.
Sally, who had followed behind, immediately tattled.
“I told her to go home, but she insisted on meeting you!”
Sally probably expected me to get hurt and retreat at this point.
But—
“Not a chance.”
Right now, Rachel wasn’t interested in me—but I knew how to change that.
I knew part of the original story—Rachel’s past.
I put on a deliberately hurt expression and began carefully.
“Actually… I know you don’t find tea time with me fun. So I thought of another way to play…”
A flicker of curiosity entered Rachel’s cold eyes for a moment.
After all, she was still just a child.
I smiled and threw out my bait.
“How about I show you the village? Or would that still be boring with me…?”
A bait Rachel couldn’t resist.
Sally scoffed from the side.
“Why would she go somewhere dirty like that? The young lady doesn’t like leaving the estate, right?”
But unlike Sally’s words, Rachel didn’t refuse immediately.
Instead, she looked at me with wavering eyes.
Just as I expected.
‘You want to go outside too, don’t you, Rachel?’
I knew from the original story.
Rachel was the daughter of Princess Isella and the late crown prince who was executed as a traitor.
The Emperor couldn’t openly punish Rachel, but that didn’t mean she was truly forgiven.
Everyone in the empire knew that.
And Rachel knew it better than anyone.
That’s why she had lived all her life hiding from people.
Never leaving the estate, hiding her existence, living as if she were already dead…
Hoping the world would forget her.
‘That suppressed heart would eventually turn into resentment.’
But here, no one would recognize her.
And the Emperor was not here.
So in this village, she wouldn’t need to hide like she did in the capital.
‘This is my chance to help Rachel take her first step outside—and earn points.’
The original story only briefly mentioned she stayed confined as a child; it never clearly said she ever left the estate.
But I knew this much—
Rachel wanted to see the outside world.
She was just afraid of the first step.
I extended my hand to her.
“Still… would you like to go to the village with me, Your Highness?”
“I—”
Rachel, who had been looking at me quietly, was about to answer—
“When I think that would be difficult.”
A suddenly appearing middle-aged woman cut Rachel’s words off.
